Thread by @ISDglobal

Last January, @TheSyriaCmpgn commissioned ISD to investigate the extent of English-language disinformation about the Syrian conflict from 2015-2021. This analysis formed the basis of @TheSyriaCmpgn report, Deadly Disinformation, published 19 June 22. deadlydisinformation.org

@TheSyriaCmpgn In today’s Digital Dispatch, ISD explains how we conducted our investigation. In short, ISD collected and analyzed over 900K tweets and over 34K Facebook posts from 28 actors known to spread false information about the Syria conflict.

@TheSyriaCmpgn Summary of findings: 1-A relatively small number of actors can spread a large amount of disinfo online; 2-this helped create an atmosphere of opacity & doubt, which permeated Western policy discussions &

@TheSyriaCmpgn diplomatic engagements regarding Syria and 3-this online disinfo, when targeted against specific people or organizations, negatively impacted their personal & professional lives. isdglobal.org/digital_dispat…

@TheSyriaCmpgn ISD and @TheSyriaCmpgn began by creating three lists. The first contained actors who spread disinformation about the Syria conflict. The second and third comprised keywords and names gathered by our research team associated with or targeted by disinfo.

@TheSyriaCmpgn Our research team used @Brandwatch and @crowdtangle to analyse social media posts by these actors between January 2015 and December 2021. We identified ~47,000 tweets containing one of more disinformation keywords, as well as 817 Facebook posts.

@TheSyriaCmpgn @Brandwatch @crowdtangle We then took a closer look at the false information and narratives spread by the 28 actors. In Brandwatch, we initiated a word cloud to display the most frequently appearing terms among all Twitter posts in the dataset:

@TheSyriaCmpgn @Brandwatch @crowdtangle In total, we found that Syria disinfo centered around 3 topics:

1 - False claims about @SyriaCivilDef
2 – Denial/distortion of facts about #chemicalweapons in Syria
3 – Denial/ distortion of OPCW reports findings

This chart shows the evolution of these topics over time:

@TheSyriaCmpgn @Brandwatch @crowdtangle @SyriaCivilDef In addition to interviews done by @TheSyriaCmpgn, ISD interviewed current & former Syria policymakers, and targets of disinformation. These interviews showed that disinfo has tangible impacts in the offline world. Read more in @TheSyriaCmpgn’s report: Deadlydisinformation.org

@TheSyriaCmpgn @Brandwatch @crowdtangle @SyriaCivilDef Read more about our digital investigation in ISD’s Digital Dispatch: isdglobal.org/digital_dispat…